Luke scoffed before I finished talking, but I wasn’t sure whether his derision was aimed at me or at Tommy, who now looked defeated and deflated.
“Then it’s settled,” Luke said. “We all go toward the light.”
And so go toward the light we did.
Luke was at the forefront of our beeline now, followed by Lori, Rowen, and Minh. I was in the back, with Tommy reluctantly lagging behind, which, I guessed, was his way of expressing defiance. And what if he was right? I couldn’t stop wondering whether we were all headed to our deaths, moving deeper into the heart of the desert where no rescue effort would ever reach us.
Whatever it was that sparkled up ahead didn’t disappear as we traveled toward it. In fact, the faint glimmer grew bigger, soon starting to change color and shape. I could now distinguish a row of something like uneven sticks with bushy heads standing out against the overall mass of gold and … green? I know we all saw it—or at least saw something other than sand, sand, and more sand—because our footsteps picked up and then we were running in an awkward shuffle like a group of deranged animals that had gotten a whiff of fresh blood. Minh tripped and stumbled ahead of me. Slowing to a halt, I reached out to steady her while my eyes scanned the ground below. A small patch of white stood out against the dirty sand. Whatever it was, it was mostly buried, its uncovered surface bleached by the sun. Lori, Luke, and Rowen did not make a move to slow down until I yelled out for them to wait. I joined Minh, who was kneeling on the ground. She was running her fingers over the white object in the sand, her hands tentative yet shivery with eagerness.
“It’s a bone.” Tommy’s shadow landed on us sideways. Minh jerked her hand back and cleaned off her fingers on her pants. Tommy’s voice turned soothing, “Dead animals. Probably lots of bones around here, if you look close.”
An uncomfortable shiver passed through me, refusing to go away. The more I studied the bone fragment submerged in the sand, the more I thought something wasn’t quite right about its angle or texture. Hesitantly I brushed more sand off it, revealing more bones. Being my parents’ daughter meant growing up exposed to lots of books on archaeology and its related fields. Not to mention that Dad’s favorite pastime was to test me on stuff he was working on. One of his topics of interest had to do with calcified remains. In particular, how to distinguish animal remains from human ones at first glance. Only, back then I thought death was an abstract thing, not something I had to deal with, at least not any time soon. But here it was, before me. The presence of death, rude and unrelenting.
“It’s not an animal,” I said. Silence met my words.
I wondered if Tommy, an archaeology wunderkind, saw what I was seeing. The bones that were now partially released from the sand were porous and detailed. I could distinguish vertebrae bent at a certain angle before they disappeared into the sand. Only human axes had those particular curves …
“They’re human bones.” I lifted myself from the ground and shook off the sand, grateful I was wearing ankle-long pants and not ultra-short shorts like Lori, even though my legs were hot and sweaty.
I scanned my friends’ faces. Lori was eyeing me with suspicion from where she stood flanked by Luke and Rowen.
“We’ll never know what happened to this person,” I murmured, looking at the bones beneath me. The others must’ve shared my unspoken sentiment: Was this our fate too?
“Freaking hell,” Luke said, coming closer to where I was, his hand snaking awkwardly around my shoulders. Our shapes cast long shadows over the grisly find. I watched him as he let go of me and leaned in to pick up a credit-card-size object stuck between the bones. Luke cleaned his find of sand and dust and stared at it. “So that French dude who rescued himself from the desert? Did he mention if he had a friend?” he asked.
Luke didn’t address anyone in particular, so no response came. When he raised his eyes and deliberately met mine, I shrugged.
“Not that I can recall.”
“Well, looks like our Desert Man wasn’t all that alone in the desert.” Luke raised his hand so we all could see the piece of plastic he held in his grip. It was a driver’s license. Issued in Paris, France. To Alain Pinon. The photo was scratched up, but I could still make out the features of a dark-skinned man, his hair pulled back from his face.
“I wonder what happened to him,” Minh said, because someone had to.
My friends’ faces were grim as we watched Luke stuff the piece of plastic into the pocket of his track pants. We continued on our trek, moving toward the outline of what could’ve been a shining mirage. Only it didn’t disappear, didn’t waver as we approached. Instead, it continued to rise up higher and bigger, the massive scale of it becoming apparent, even to our tired eyes, half blinded by the sun.
IN HEAVEN, EVERYTHING IS FINE
Having seen the Sphinx, or the great pyramids of Giza, or the mountain fortress of Machu Picchu did nothing to prepare me for the surreal grandeur of the oasis that came into view suddenly, violently, stopping my heart and jolting it back to life at once.
The oasis swelled out of the desert like a drop of clean water, and it fizzled in the heat. Those uneven sticks with bushy tops I’d noticed from a distance had now assumed their true form, morphing into luscious palm trees, their heads melodically swaying. The thought of a cool breeze on my face made me almost drunk with want. But there were patches of darkness behind the palm trees, and that darkness seemed to glimmer and blink at me when I tried focusing on it.
We kept moving toward it, this dark greenish mass that was growing bigger with each step. Soon it was claiming a large chunk of the horizon, stretching far—farther than any known or imaginary oasis in my mind. My brain must’ve been glitching, overheated in the desert air. Because how could this be? An oasis this big? Here? The largest oasis in the vicinity of Dubai was Al Ain, but that was in Abu Dhabi, a neighboring emirate more than eighty miles away. And besides, Al Ain was just three thousand acres. None of this made any sense. And yet here it was. Existing. Sparkling in the sun. Undulating in the imperceptible wind.
I stared at this miracle, too afraid to blink and lose it, my vision blurring from the effort. Through tears flooding my eyes, I noticed wispy clouds of mist shrouding the tops of the palms, creating the illusion of the oasis breathing. I strained to see houses, cars, or any other sign of human presence. Oases, large or small, were a hot commodity in these parts, and it’d be unlikely that an oasis this size would go unnoticed and unutilized. But I saw none of it—just those bushy palm trees rubbing shoulders, standing so close and tight that their mass was dark, no light allowed in or out. I shivered despite the persisting heat.
“I think I’m just totally losing it right now,” Minh whispered to me. “I’m seeing palm trees. I can even smell water!”
My throat quivered at water, my thirst shoving aside my fear of the darkness that was lurking behind the clusters of trees. What sounded like a falcon screamed close by, but there were no birds in sight. Those circling black dots up in the sky that I saw earlier were long gone now. The air was still stilted and humid, but, as we approached the oasis, there was also a fresh breeze, more appropriate for areas by the sea, not arid wastelands. It reminded me of home. Of Melbourne. Not the dusty city parts of it but the waterfront suburbs, where the nautical winds never failed to induce cold shivers, even in summer.
“Then I’ve totally lost it too,” Luke croaked. “I’m also seeing it.”
“We’re all seeing it,” I concluded after taking a quick look around, pausing to take in each of my friends’ dazed faces.
Only Tommy kept his cool, managing to look skeptical while the rest of us were stunned. I shuffled closer to him and asked, keeping my voice low, “There’s such a thing as a group mirage, right?”
“Group hallucinations do exist.” He nodded, careful with his words. “To the point of everyone affected smelling and tasting the same thing, but…” He stopped short. Everyone was listening to our conversation, waiting for Tommy’s verdict, while al
so straining not to break into a run toward the oasis. Our salvation.
“But…,” Tommy started again, his eyes fixated on the cluster of palms up ahead. “This feels so real.”
He took a step toward the oasis, then another, as if moving not of his own accord but rather beckoned into the trees, into the mist, into the darkness, by some power. Tommy didn’t stop moving, and the rest of us followed. Lori and Rowen held hands. Minh kept up with them, her shoulders pulled back, hands in fists. I was left behind with the brooding, silent Luke. The memory of kissing him was now nothing but a faded ghost. Something from a past life.
Mirage or not, the oasis loomed close, stretching wider and higher as we approached. But the closer to it we got, the more difficult it became to keep on moving. Whether from exertion or dehydration or both, I began losing my breath. Like that of a fish washed ashore, my mouth opened and closed, attempting to capture as much oxygen as it could. Mentally I yelled at myself, urging my exhausted body to move, to carry me forward. I wasn’t going to die mere feet from water and shade.
The trees were so close now I could no longer see where the outline of the oasis started or where it ended. The entire horizon in my line of vision was now claimed by this living green entity.
Up ahead, Tommy was first to cross the boundary between our certain death in the sands and this unanticipated rescue. As he entered the oasis, I watched his back and the way his limbs moved, searching for any sign that our rescue was indeed real, and not a mirage. But the confirmation came from Lori, who roughly untangled herself from Rowen and dashed for the trees, practically falling into the oasis. She knelt there among the palms, her body shaking with sobs. I’d never seen Lori cry before. Never seen her lose her cool before.
Blood rushing into my face, my limbs, I gathered what was left of my strength and sped up my pace, soon passing Minh and Luke.
Water.
I broke into a run.
The palm trees were upon me. Towering over me. Their shade enveloped me. A subtle rustling of fronds grew louder with each step. And here it was, the unmistakable burbling of water. A spring must’ve been nearby, within hearing range. That is, unless my brain was conspiring with the rest of my possibly dying body to make up that sound to soothe me in my final moments.
All of us were here now, Minh and Luke the last to enter the realm of trees. The ever-moving, shade-giving canopy hovered over our heads. Driven by some unspoken agreement, we proceeded in deeper, walking through an opening between two of the taller trees, guardians of this hidden paradise. A blast of chilled air wrapped itself around me, heaven against my skin.
There was fruit everywhere, abundant in the foliage. It struck me that it had a shiny supermarket quality, looking almost plastic. Untouched by insects, undamaged by the heat.
Clinging to the lower parts of the trees were clusters of bushes that bore no fruit but were instead covered with flowers—yellow, pink, lilac. I could recognize only the yellow, thanks to its berries; they were called golden dewdrops. I knew that because of Mom’s brief stint in gardening that had nearly killed her neighbor’s dog. Both the foliage and the yellow berries were highly poisonous.
This lush spot where we found ourselves was surrounded by a tighter, less welcoming type of nature, where trees and bushes stuck so close, I could see only darkness behind them. I stared into one of the shadowy depths, and it was as if something stared back. Something eager, curious, and hungry. Our current location was made even more idyllic by these rougher, less hospitable parts of the oasis. Who knew what was out there. Animals? Snakes? Driven by a shared understanding, we didn’t progress any farther, staying instead in this perfect spot. It was just missing butterflies and birdsong to complete the picture.
Lori didn’t seem to care how bizarre this was, this beautiful clearing in the middle of arid wilderness. As I watched her, my brain capturing it in slow motion, she pulled the closest branch to her and snatched what looked like a pear off it with unnecessary force. Did pears even grow in the desert? What about apples?
“I’ve been dying for a pear!” she murmured.
“Lori, wait!” I made a move toward her, intending to grab the suspicions fruit before she sank her teeth into it, but she was already going after another piece of fruit, having demolished the first one in seconds. Juice was running down her chin and neck as her eyes met mine. A recent memory of seeing her kneeling and sobbing made me wonder what was going through her mind.
Our little group was unraveling. Behind Lori, Luke and Rowen were on their knees by the spring, submerging their hands and heads in water. Coming back up for air, they spat out water in drunken excitement, then brought more water by fistfuls into their greedy mouths. Tommy lingered not far from them, but he wasn’t drinking or eating. Pensive, he knelt by the spring and with coiled-up restraint brought his hands down to scoop some liquid up to wash his face and rinse the sand from his eyes.
Minh approached me. “Something doesn’t feel right.” Her hands were empty of fruit, but she was glaring hungrily at Lori, who was now devouring her fifth or sixth pear. There was a barely contained frenzy on Lori’s feral face.
“You can’t be serious,” Lori, hearing Minh’s comment, managed to utter in response between chewing. “You’re seriously going to question this miracle?”
“Pears and apples can’t grow in the desert, Lori,” I said. “Don’t you at least think this is extremely weird?”
“Who cares?” Luke, having drunk his share of water, came over to the stumpy pear-bearing trees and followed Lori’s example of stuffing himself silly. I was too busy watching pears disappear into Luke’s mouth to notice Rowen silently approaching me and Minh. He held his hands out like a bowl, showing us a pile of ripe strawberries heaped inside. “Look what I found!”
My eyes widened and my mouth watered with anticipation. I recalled that specific craving for strawberries I’d had earlier. How could this be possible? Pears, apples, and now this? The bright red pile of goodness Rowen held in his hands told me yes, it was indeed happening.
Minh caved in and took one plump fruit Rowen was offering, but not before giving me an apologetic look. “One can’t hurt, can it?”
Tommy walked up to us but didn’t infringe on our little circle. “We should ration our food,” he said.
“Just look around you, mate.” Luke laughed at him, his words loud, unhinged. “We’ll be fine until the rescue comes.”
The fruit was indeed ripe and plentiful. The smaller, skinnier palm trees were practically twisted into strained arcs, their heads touching the ground, presenting their offerings of bananas, peaches, nectarines, all fleshy and perfect. Having devoured more than their bodies could handle, Lori, Rowen, and Luke lay down by the babbling spring. Unable to move, they held their stomachs like kids who’d lucked out at Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. Ignored by them, Tommy retreated back to the spring, kneeling by the section where the water disappeared into that denser part of the oasis. I was drawn into the dark, I realized, while simultaneously being repulsed by it.
“At least do me a favor and stay away from the flowers with yellow berries. Those are highly toxic and will make you sick,” I said in the general direction of Lori and her accomplices. Then I looked for Minh, who had wandered off.
I found Minh by the fruit-bearing palms recently ravaged by Lori, Luke, and Rowen. Gingerly, Minh picked up an apple Luke had dropped in his feeding frenzy and stared at the innocent-looking fruit, desire clouding her face. She didn’t take a bite though, asking me instead, “Aren’t you going to eat something? You must be starving. And dying of thirst.”
Not wanting to draw attention from the careless trio lying on their backs, patting their bulging stomachs, I indicated Minh should follow me. I led her to the section of the spring where Tommy sat alone by the water. He was washing what appeared to be a bunch of blueberries.
I came to sit by Tommy’s side, Minh lagging behind. Tommy stopped what he was doing and offered to share what he’d collected. I took a
few berries but didn’t immediately put them in my mouth, though my entire body screamed for me to go ahead. The water in the spring was transparent. I could see polished rocks strewn on the bottom. I needed to drink. But instead I asked Tommy, “Is there any scientific explanation we can use to prove that any of this is real? I mean, bananas maybe make sense around here. But what about apples, pears, peaches? And blueberries?”
“Are those blueberries? Are you kidding me?” Minh exclaimed, noticing Tommy’s catch for the first time. “I’ve been craving those.”
Tommy measured a portion of his blueberries to share with Minh, and she threw them all into her mouth in one go. “This is real, isn’t it?” she asked. But the suspicion in her voice was weakening as she picked up more blueberries from the ground and ate them by the fistful, not bothering to rinse them in the spring.
“As real as can be, I guess,” I said.
Minh took a seat on the ground next to me, with Tommy on my other side. I felt him watching me sideways, but I couldn’t take my eyes away from the stream of water. Its rambling was deafening once our conversation ceased. I hesitated for a second but then plunged a hand into the spring. I expected the water to be lukewarm, but it was crisp, cool to my skin, numbing my fingers. I brought a handful of water to my mouth and drank. It was the best-tasting water I’d ever had.
Drowsiness immediately came to replace my thirst. I had a sudden urge to curl up right then and there in the gentle shade by the water, to drop my head to the lush grassy ground and close my eyes. My lids were heavy. Minh asked something and, though I missed her question as well as Tommy’s answer, the sounds of their voices brought me back from my near-sleep. I now felt both of them watching me.
I made an effort to stay awake and upright. My vision cleared and, like a rude slap, in came the realization of how vivid the oasis was. All its colors competed with one another for domination. Blue water, emerald grass, yellow flowers, red strawberries, all of it standing out against the uncountable dark spots lurking between the trees. And everything around me was constantly shifting, shimmering. A kaleidoscope of perception. But how much of my spiked perception of reality was brought on by exposure? I raised my hands up to my face, placing them against the background of the sparkling oasis. My skin was dry and blotchy but very much real. Didn’t it mean that the rest of it, the grandeur of the palms in all their fine greenery, was also real?
Oasis Page 8
